As more and more of us try to something, anything, to reduce the effect of our lifestyles on the environment…and consumers start to weigh the pros and cons of the “disposable fashion” offered by mass-market retailers…it may be worthwhile to consider Re-Shirts, an Austrian-based business experiment that centers on used t-shirts and asks the question, “Do products last longer if you know their history?”

The concept is simple. Someone, somewhere in the world, owns a t-shirt that they associate with a specific moment in their life. For whatever reason, they decide that they no longer want the shirt and, instead of consigning it to the trashcan where it will eventually end its life as landfill, they donate it to Re-Shirt. Re-Shirt display the shirt online, along with a brief story from its original owner, and when a new owner appears the shirt is tagged with a numbered label. From that moment on future owners of the shirt can update the site with the shirt’s history.

As 10,000 liters of water are needed to produce a new cotton t-shirt…and annually more than 20 million tons of cotton are produced…every little bit helps. And with Re-Shirt, you have the opportunity to live vicariously through your donation and follow your shirt’s new adventures as it crosses the globe.